Posts Tagged ‘online learning’
August 31 - Using Rubrics to Improve Online Teaching, Learning, and Retention
By: Cindy Rippé in Online Education
I have always enjoyed teaching in the classroom environment. There is something special about watching a student’s eyes light up as a new concept changes perceptions. When I first taught in the online environment, I wondered how I would communicate with students without seeing them in person. Would they get my assignments? Would they understand the requirements? Could they produce the level of work I expected? Could we overcome the potential miscommunications of the written word?
August 25 - Eight Ways to Support Faculty Needs with a Virtual Teaching & Learning Center
By: Kathleen MacDonald in Faculty Development
Teaching and learning support professionals, particularly those who must perform miracles as a “Department of One,” can have one of the most challenging jobs on campus. They not only support the course design, content delivery strategies, technology integration, and training/orientation for faculty and students in online learning programs (asynchronous and synchronous formats), but they also support all other teaching/learning needs for classroom, blended, and any other teaching environment. This professional may be an instructional designer, an educational technologist, or very often, a designated faculty member with some or all of these skills.
August 6 - Online Course Design Should Consider Learner Characteristics
By: Christopher Hill in Distance Learning Administration
In the early days of online learning, text was the primary medium of instruction. Now options abound, but finding the appropriate tools and using them effectively is another matter.
July 14 - Distance Education Resistance: Understanding Its Origins
By: Christopher Hill in Distance Learning Administration
It’s a fact of life. Distance education proponents have to learn how to live with conflict. Distance education has been controversial from the start and in many ways continues to be so. Elizabeth Mitchell, PhD and Dr. Iris Geva-May, a professor on the Education faculty at Canada’s Simon Fraser University, have studied the resistance to
July 9 - Tips for Establishing a Rapport with Online Students
By: Errol Craig Sull in Online Education
“There is no personal interaction between student and teacher…the spontaneity of teaching is lost…the only rapport exists in exchanging bits and bytes of info.”
Perhaps you’ve heard someone make this objection to online learning? Or even uttered it yourself?
My answer to this is very simple: hogwash.
June 29 - Student Engagement Strategies for the Online Classroom
By: Rob Kelly in Online Education
Cognitive engagement is important to student success in any learning environment. However, cognitive engagement takes on more significance in the online learning environment, where students learn in a physically isolated environment and often lack elements that typically engage students in the face-to-face classroom.
May 15 - Six Steps to Creating an Effective Online Orientation Program
By: Christopher Hill in Distance Learning Administration
“If you’ve never taken a web-based course you don’t know what you do in the online classroom, you don’t know how to use the tools in the online classroom; you don’t know how to do the equivalent of how to raise your hand.” So says Danielle Karpus, Distance Learning Support Specialist at Cuyahoga Community College.
April 27 - Classroom Management Tips for Online Courses: Dealing with Difficult Students
By: Mary Bart in Distance Learning Administration, Online Education
“Managing student expectations is important in any class but even more so for online and blended courses where it’s easy for students to feel lost,” says Susan Ko, executive director of the Center for Teaching and Learning at the University of Maryland University College (UMUC). “Even well structured, academically rigorous online classes can have diminished effectiveness due to a lack of clear expectations.”
March 16 - Strategies for Teaching Blended Learning Courses, Maybe You (and Your Students) Can Have It All
By: Mary Bart in Distance Learning Administration, Online Education
Blended learning, which combines face-to-face and online learning activities into a single course, has experienced tremendous growth during the past few years. A blended learning course (also called a hybrid course) can satisfy students’ need for flexibility, as well as alleviate overcrowded classrooms. However, the biggest benefit to a well-designed blended course is a much improved teaching and learning experience.
March 13 - How to Retain Online Instructors
By: Christopher Hill in Distance Learning Administration
When an online learning program relies heavily on part-time instructors, a high turnover rate could negatively affect course quality and increase faculty development costs. This is why retaining good part-time online instructors is a priority at Humber College’s Open Learning Centre in Toronto, where 90 percent of online courses are taught by part-time instructors.
